Dancers 'Cuddle Up,' Get In Step With Shag

NEWPORT NEWS — Mitty's on a Tuesday is where 16-year-olds learn the shag with 78-year-olds.

Conner Beaufait is explaining how to dance the Carolina shag.

"The man holds the woman's hand with his middle and ring finger, because if you go hand to hand, it's hard to do turns," the 16-year-old says.

Then he takes the hand of Carmen Rowell, a sprightly 78-year-old in sparkly black pants. "One-and-two, three-and-four, five, six. It's supposed to be calming."

In four years, the dance sometimes referred to as "Swing on Valium" has swept through Hampton Roads. The step attracts 40- and 50-somethings looking to rejuvenate their social lives. But their children and parents are joining the party.

And this party is at Mitty's nightclub in Newport News. It's a very different scene from the one police found Christmas Eve, when a fight sent 500 patrons fleeing from the club, and from two years ago, when the club was fined for a "Who Can Get Dirtiest" contest involving cleavage and simulated sex acts.

"I'd love for the chief of police to come here on a Tuesday night and see this," said shag instructor Cindy Goree. "We're a group of people that you don't expect to be at Mitty's."

To these people, the shag has no rude connotations -- despite the suggestive names of some steps, such as the "cuddle up" or "butt roll" (touching butts is optional). "Shagging" is performed from the waist down and with only one hand, so the legend had it, surfers and beach bums could keep the other hand free to hold a beer.

Conner's mom dragged him into it about five months ago, telling him girls always like a guy who can dance. He's found this to be true. One night when no one else showed up for class, Conner saw a woman sitting alone at the bar and coaxed her onto the smooth beige floor.

"I asked her if she wanted to learn it. I taught her for a little bit," he says modestly. "She loved it. You just have to get people used to it."

It's a friendly, woozy kind of dance that can quickly get complicated. There are some basic tenets. The gentleman leads. If you get confused, keep doing the basic footwork. Talk is sparse. Partners communicate with physical cues, moving close together and far apart with clasped hands, like an accordion.

You can do the shag to any medium tempo disco, rhythm and blues, oldies or hip-hop. Conner says he even danced to Led Zeppelin once: "You just have to find the beat."

Newcomers to the shag find a wholesome, nonthreatening scene that's nothing like the socially awkward dances of high school. A recent Tuesday at Mitty's drew about 60 people. Some have been doing the shag for four years, others for just a couple months.

"Where else can a guy like me go to dance and have a bunch of women waiting for him to dance with?" says Bob McKisson of Oyster Point, a gray-haired man with loafers. He puts down his coffee cup, walks over to a woman in a mock turtleneck sweater and slides with her across the floor.

Women are expected to ask men to dance, too, and it's poor etiquette to say no.

"I'm not going to wait for anybody to dance," says the 78-year-old Rowell, who is a widow.

"Let me dance with this guy," she says, pulling a 60-something gentleman onto the floor. He puts his hands on her hips and sways suggestively, then sends her out in front of him and pivots.

For an old-fashioned gentleman it can take some getting used to, asking another man's wife to dance and having another man dance with his . Jerry Nichols of Seaford explains some etiquette to avoid an awkward situation:

"If a girl is with a guy, you might ask, 'Do you mind if I dance with your lady?' You don't want to make an ass of yourself."

Newly single, Brenda Kennedy signed up for lessons to meet some new people. A few weeks into her first set of shag lessons, she was still a bit too preoccupied with her feet to let the music transport her. But she knew she liked it.

"I feel kind of free, if I can ever get calm enough to feel free," said Kennedy, 52, of Virginia Beach.

More talking is done off the dance floor, where couples and single people mingle and have a drink. Many return to Mitty's on Friday night, when the Colonial Shag Club holds a party, and then they regroup at Stepping Out in Virginia Beach to dance for another four hours. The older folks head to Joe & Mimma's Italian restaurant for a salad or a slice of pizza.

It's almost 10 p.m., and the last dancers are pulling on their coats and heading out. Carmen can't stop moving her legs, but when the music changes to a man singing "I'm a breast man, I'm a thigh man," she takes this as her cue to leave. *

SHAG DANCING AT MITTY'S

Classes are taught in Newport News the first three Tuesdays of the month at Mitty's nightclub in the Omni hotel in Oyster Point. The cost is $45 for a two-month session. For more information, call Cindy Goree at 478-1600 or visit www.shagn4u.com/.

The Colonial Shag Club hosts free shag parties for the public on Fridays from 6:30 to 9 p.m. at Mitty's (starting in April, it will move to Saturday). Shag dancers also gather on Sundays from 6 to 10 p.m. at Carpe P.M. in the Festival Marketplace on McLaw's Circle in James City County. *